Michael opened the door of the darkened home and stepped outside, cautiously looking up and down the quiet avenue.

The others already had left safely. He quickly walked toward his car two blocks away, hoping no one had become suspicious and alerted authorities.

He found his '14 Chevy where he had parked it. The small sedan was in good condition for an eight-year-old vehicle.

Conscious of the streetlights, he opened the door and stepped in, looking around before slowly driving down the empty street. No need to attract attention.

"Things sure have changed," he muttered. And not for the best. Government regulations had become increasingly restrictive until it was nearly impossible for Christians to meet at home.

The rules were suffocating — no more than six cars parked within a two-block radius of a meeting, "noise" ordinances that made it possible for a neighbor to shut down a meeting simply because he wanted to, licensing requirements for the owner of a home hosting a meeting, restrictions of what could be taught to children — and it got worse each year.

The penalties for violations were severe. Under civil seizure and forfeiture and RICO laws developed decades before to combat illegal drug trafficking, a home could be seized without a trial and participants jailed or fined.

Michael could not remember when he had not been Christian, but he could remember when things were different, especially before the Great Cleansing had removed every trace of Christianity from the public sphere.

The American Civil Liberties Union had been relentless in its pursuit of the Cleansing.

Through its alliance with other leftist groups and The New Democratic Union, a flood of lawsuits, intense lobbying and outright intimidation had resulted in the removal of every public mention of God, Jesus Christ and the Ten Commandments.

"In God We Trust" was gone from the currency and "Under God" was no longer in the Pledge of Allegiance. Neither Congress, the Supreme Court nor any government body of any kind opened with prayer. Millions of dollars had been spent removing offending symbols and words from every monument, city square and courthouse — even the Supreme Court.

As he neared home, Michael noticed a celebration at the Gay and Lesbian Town Hall. He saw that it was a wedding. Every community had a GLTH, and federal law required that all children age 5 through 12 attend meetings to sensitize them to the needs and sensibilities of homosexuals. It was estimated that 23% of the population now was openly homosexual.

That was the worst part of America's "cultural revolution," Michael thought. Decent people dared not frequent parks or public squares after dark, and in the larger cities did not even leave their homes at night because of the lurid public sexuality activity.

The homosexual ascendancy had resulted in an attack against churches. The Homosexual Bill of Rights and the National Hate Speech Abatement Act had shut down every true Christian church, either for failing to have a proportionate number of homosexuals on staff or for preaching that homosexuality was a sin.

The financial penalties assessed against the churches had been overwhelming, and pastors even had been imprisoned.

After the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that under the Constitution it had complete oversight of legislation, taxation and criminal prosecution, the economy had been decimated by stifling regulation and immense taxation.

Under New Democratic Union President Rob Anderson, wholesale nuclear disarmament had made America susceptible to international blackmail. Only the protection of China, America's chief trading partner, allowed the U.S. to exist. Islamic countries had threatened nuclear attack, but relented when the Muslim Party of America was granted unprecedented representation in Congress by the Supreme Court.

Only the threat of war had stopped Mexico's attempt to annex the Southwestern United States through the United Nations Committee for Sovereign Restoration. None doubted that eventually it would happen — California already was 75% Hispanic.

Michael turned into the driveway of his modest home and thought of his youth, when he had lived in relative luxury. But that was before the Supreme Court ruled that Christians could legally be fired or refused employment if they did not agree to refrain from any public discussion or display of their faith. Most refused and often held only the most menial of jobs.

"How did this happen?" he asked himself. He tried to place where it had gone wrong. It seemed that around his senior year in college — good grief, could that really have been 2003? Where had the time gone? — things just began to unravel with ever-increasing speed.

"I miss you, America," he whispered to himself. "I miss you, and wish we had you back. What did we do wrong? How did this happen?